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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27922054">yo-leven at midnight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai'>AlexSeanchai</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Miraculous Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Confused Mylène Haprèle, Established Ivan Bruel/Mylène Haprèle, F/M, Lila Rossi Lies, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Podfic Welcome, Post-Reveal Pre-Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:54:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,039</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27922054</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>If there's one thing that living under Hawkmoth's reign of terror has taught anyone, Mylène knows, it's that this is <em>Ladybug</em>'s Paris. Courage and compassion before all—and if you're low on one, amp up the other. Which is a winning strategy anyway; it's just extra important in Paris. Nobody needs courage against an akuma if compassion means there isn't one.</p>
<p>Mylène will ask Ivan if the two of them can try to hang out with Marinette more often. Lila's the only one who doesn't think Marinette's akumasona will be terrifying, and Horrificator, once Ivan knew what to do, was anything but.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Ivan Bruel/Mylène Haprèle, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug &amp; Mylène Haprèle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>176</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>yo-leven at midnight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mylène's not—brave. Not really. She can raise her protest signs at rallies because Ivan is with her, a solid wall of stubborn between her and anyone who'll insult her for her age or size or opinions: that's as far as her courage goes.</p>
<p>(Ivan says <em>he's</em> not brave, not really. He can voice his protests quietly because <em>Mylène</em> is with him, loud and proud. She doesn't believe him. She'll never say so.)</p>
<p>If there's one thing that living under Hawkmoth's reign of terror has taught anyone, though, it's that this is <em>Ladybug</em>'s Paris. Courage and compassion before all—and if you're low on one, amp up the other. Which is a winning strategy anyway; it's just extra important in Paris. Nobody needs courage against an akuma if compassion means there isn't one.</p>
<p>(That's not how Hawkmoth works, Alix has told them. Alix thinks the kid underneath Lollipop Giant wasn't the target the first time Hawkmoth akumatized him: Adrien's bodyguard was, thanks to their Operation Secret Garden shenanigans, and the purple butterfly was already on the way when the Gorilla saw Adrien was okay and then calmed himself down. Hawkmoth just didn't want to waste whatever the purple butterfly cost him, and the kid was the nearest person upset over anything at all.)</p>
<p>(…Mylène would rather not think that the rest of the way through.)</p>
<p>So the day Adrien—there is a queue to kill Adrien's father; Mylène is not in it, because she knows her limitations, but she is prepared to swear by all she holds sacred that whoever <em>gets</em> the bastard was with her the whole day— The day Adrien comes back from a spur-of-the-moment photoshoot muttering something vicious about pigeon cordon bleu, Mylène knows to toss him a packet of tissues for the sneezing and runny nose and remind him he can fidget with his ring instead of rubbing his itchy eyes.</p>
<p>When Adrien admits fifteen minutes later that there's more to his bad mood than missing class, caught in the akuma attack or no—even given the akuma attack on Monday that meant he missed his allergy shot, when he mostly gets allergy shots in order to <em>avoid</em> dealing with this twice a week—Ivan has lyrics half drafted for a new song that he cheerfully asks Adrien's opinion on. It's mostly (Mylène knows) just to distract him, but sometimes Adrien does hit on a change of wording that rings to Ivan more as poetic wordplay than as punning for punning's sake.</p>
<p>And ten minutes after that, when Marinette sneaks back in, tear tracks only partly washed off her cheeks, Mylène has another packet of tissues ready. Marinette doesn't use them, but the moment it's free period, she, Rose, and Alya tug Marinette off to the art room.</p>
<p>Marinette sits at one of the tables she sometimes draws or sews at, but doesn't reach for needle or pencils. The others gather around her. "Adrien again?" Alya asks, and if Marinette doesn't notice the impatience in Alya's tone, Mylène won't point it out.</p>
<p>"Yes and no," Marinette says, twisting her fingers through the cord of her red teardrop pendant, almost like cat's-cradle. She takes a shaky breath. "Don't—don't push me to tell him anymore." She doesn't need to say what about. "I shouldn't. I won't. I'm done trying. I mean it this time."</p>
<p>Mylène and Alya exchange glances. She meant it last time. And the time before that. But she hadn't cried then.</p>
<p>"—Did he do something wrong?" Rose asks, reaching for Marinette's shoulder, stopping when Marinette flinches back.</p>
<p>Marinette snorts. "No. —Not that I know of," she corrects herself, staring dry-eyed down at the pendant in her hands. "I'm—I'm his friend, right? That's what he says?" She hiccups. " 'My good friend Marinette'—that's what he wants me to be. His good friend. Nothing more."</p>
<p>Mylène is not the only one who has asked Adrien if he's <em>sure</em> about that. She is also not the only one who thinks Adrien is just fooling himself.</p>
<p>"And I want to be his friend and nothing less," Marinette says. "There's an obvious solution here." A trembling little laugh. "Eas—no. <em>Simplest</em> thing in the world."</p>
<p>"Simple," Mylène says. They're going to have to watch Marinette twice as carefully to try to avoid akumas, aren't they? Maybe Mylène will ask Ivan if the two of them can try to hang out with Marinette more often. Lila's the only one who doesn't think Marinette's akumasona will be terrifying, and Horrificator, once Ivan knew what to do, was anything but. "Simple. Not easy."</p>
<p>Marinette nods without looking up.</p>
<p>Alya frowns, reaching for Marinette again. "What happened?" she asks. "What did he do?"</p>
<p>"Nothing he meant to." Marinette twitches her shoulder out of Alya's grasp and starts to unwind her fingers from the pendant cord. "No harm done. None I want him to know about."</p>
<p>"Girl—" says Alya, disappointment plain, and Marinette snaps, "<em>No</em>."</p>
<p>Mylène blinks at her.</p>
<p>"I know who he's in love with now." Marinette's smile is weak and she knows it. "How do I compete with <em>Ladybug</em>?"</p>
<p>Her hand closes around the teardrop pendant.</p>
<p>"Life is a crapshoot," Marinette says, voice unsteady, rising to unsteady feet. "Sometimes you cut your losses."</p>
<p>The art room door slams behind her so fiercely that it bounces off the doorframe and drifts partway open again.</p>
<p>"—Adrien's not—<em>in love with</em> Ladybug," Rose says slowly. "We knew about his crush—" Chloé probably doesn't, and apparently Marinette didn't, but Mylène is pretty sure everyone else does. (Chloé is probably also the only one who doesn't know about her own crush on Ladybug, or Sabrina's on Chloé; heaven help Sabrina.) "—but he knows about celebrity crushes." Rose pauses. "Doesn't he?"</p>
<p>"Nino gave up on saying Adrien's one of today's lucky ten thousand," Alya says, tone and expression flattening. "Because there's ten thousand things Adrien <em>doesn't know</em>."</p>
<p>It's a wonder no one's jumped the murder-Gabriel-Agreste queue yet, thinks Mylène, but that's not going to be her problem until someone makes it an actual problem. "What did he say to her about Ladybug," Mylène wonders, watching the open door, "that made her think she wants to close that door?"</p>
<p>(Mylène is not the poet here, okay?)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><a href="https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/post/612627045048008704/as-a-fic-writer-i-need-every-reader-to-know">My comment policy</a>: tl;dr happy comments make me happy. So do thinky comments, of course, but there exist jerks who think only thinky comments are worth anyone leaving.</p>
<p>Find me on <a href="https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/">Dreamwidth</a> and <a href="https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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